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Throughout the book, Harper Lee expresses many themes. These themes and ideas help express her points more clearly about what she, Harper Lee stands for and her morals that is being taught through the book. There are three major themes in this book.
The first is the contrast between light and dark, is used in many scenes of multiple chapters. In every scene, it is safe to say that Scout and Jem uses their senses to sense darkness. After they sense the dark, something, whether it is a rising action or the climax, involving the darkness of Maycomb happens. At the end of each chapter (with the light and dark contrast), Scout and Jem take something out of that experience such as learning not to mess with Nathan Radley or about just growing up and understanding that there is not always light in the world and in everything they do.
Another theme in this book is about growing up. Harper Lee specifically places Scout as the narrator to show her progress from a innocent and somewhat ignorant girl to a understanding and more mature girl. For example in Chapter 30 after she places empathy toward Arthur Radley and visualizes that she is him... after, she reflects, she says “Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough...As I made my way home, I felt very old.” This shows that she finally understands Boo and not just a mysterious person who is participated in a childish game. Scout and Jem have grown up so much throughout these chapters and they are expressed through a dramatic changes, physically and mentally.
The third theme is the Mockingbird. It is a symbol on its own in this book, but it represents the justice. The mockingbird is a innocent bird and is a crime to kill. This is just like Tom Robinson and others in this book who have been treated unfairly. Harper Lee makes Mockingbirds the cover of the book because it is what you should do (the right thing). This is a moral Harper Lee wanted to convey to the readers to teach others about an important lesson in life, don’t do the wrong thing and affect others in a negative way, but give justice to them and treat them fairly.
Is there any other themes that you can think of that are important too? What do you think would happen if the story was told in Jem’s point of view? Would you still get the same message that Harper Lee is trying to convey to you if Jem was the narrator?
I of course agree with all three of those themes. I also think that you missed one. I think that a major theme in this book is that no matter how hard you try to believe that is is not true, there will always be evil people in the world. people like Mr. Radley and Bob Ewell it is impossible to get their kind of people that they are out of this world.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to add two themes. One is the contrast between right and wrong. Atticus really tries to make his kids learn how to choose the best path; this is part of his unique parenting style. Instead of modern parents who are always trying to get their kids to DO what is right over what is wrong, Atticus teaches his kids the ability to distinguish the two and choose whichever they fancy. It's pretty true that right and wrong aren't always black and white, and Atticus picked up on that.
ReplyDeleteThe other theme I'd like to add is in this quote: "It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see the whole thing through"(128). Variations of this come up a lot throughout the novel, and it's another part of the big lesson Atticus is teaching his children. Owen touched on it a little. It's perseverance, never giving up, and all that inhumanly symbolic Atticus advice.
I think that Jem narrating would have led to a similar plot, but the book would have been told differently. When Scout is very young Atticus is like a god because most young children view their parents this way. As she grew older Atticus was still a great man, but he became more human throughout. Jem also is growing through puberty so he would of talked about growing up. Scout is also going through the transition from child to adult, but with Jem, this would have been an important detail of every chapter.
DeleteI agree with all themes said before but I think that there is also another one. I think that a large theme in this story is that no matter how big one gets, they can still be a child. This is shown when Scout sits in Atticus' lap and sleeps. In the beginning of the book, this is a normal occurrence, but as the story progresses it gets less and less frequent, with smaller parts of Scout being held onto. But this is not what completely happens. In the end of the book, Atticus reads to Scout and she sits completely in his lap. This shows that no mater how old one gets, they can still be a child and sit in the laps of adults.
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